Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konaté has been sent back to the club by France after being benched on Friday.
That’s according to L’Equipe, who report that the Liverpool centre-back will be missing alongside Kylian Mbappé.
The newspaper reports that the Liverpool defender arrived at Clairefontaine injured for France training this week. He was then benched on Friday for the 3-0 win over Azerbaijan. The decision has now been made for him to completely miss the trip to Iceland on Monday.
He is instead set to return to Liverpool. According to L’Equipe, he is suffering from a thigh injury. He had been undergoing treatment with France during the first days of their training camp and was on a ‘special program’. They don’t detail what that entailed.
Now the decision has been made for him to return to Liverpool early rather than fly to Reykjavik on Saturday. France take on Iceland on Monday evening in World Cup qualifying.
The 26-year-old had picked up the injury in Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea last weekend. He left that game in the 56th minute.
It’s the third thigh injury of his career to date, with him also missing four Liverpool games last season with a similar problem. How long he remains out this time, remains to be seen.
